Free Ascension (The Gryphon Series) by Stacey Rourke

screamed and huddled with his brother in a cowardly hug.
    “Six went in, only four came out ,” his brother finished.
    I shoved Gabe behind me and turned to glare through narrowed eyes. “The Countess is watching us? Why ?”
    “ The Countess isn’t watching you, we were!” Red rambled at top speed. “We wanted to find out if the rumors were true.”
    My gaze flicked to Gabe then Big Mike . I saw my own trepidation reflected on their faces. So much had happened tonight, so many truths revealed. Spilling secrets to these proven traitors wasn’t an option. If they knew something vital we couldn’t let them out of this garage alive.
    I steeled my spine and squared my shoulders, wordlessly signaling playtime had ended. “What rumors?”
    “That Barnabus is still alive!” Boil Face erupted, his loose skin wobbled and shook with jittery zest.
    H is friends nodded along like wide-eyed, eager pups.
    “Who told you that?” I cautiously asked.
    “Remember that G oth chick, Kat? The one that showed up at his wedding and made us blow the place up?”
    “Nobody made you do anything.” I didn’t have to look back to know Gabe’s attributes were taking on a more feline likeness. I could hear it in his dropped octave rumble.
    The glee clubbers exchanged leery glances before they shoved Eddie forward to finish the story. He scowled over his shoulder at his “friends” before he continued, “She showed up in the Underworld making all sorts of crazy claims. She said you cracked her arm over your knee like a twig.”
    “ That’s not crazy.” I shrugged. “Totally true.”
    Eddie turned his head and whispered behind his hand to his friends, “Anger management, anyone?”
    “ So, the rest must be true, too!” Red quite literally lit up. A spark, like the ignited wick of a candle, burned in his irises. “She did work for Barnabus! He really is alive!”
    “We liked Barnabus. He’s so much cooler than the Countess. Sometimes he’d even riff with us.” Boil Face ’s shoulders rose and fell in anxious, spastic shrugs.
    “He’d riff with you?” Gabe sneered.
    I wet my dry lips and cast a sideways glance at my brother. “Day in and day out we fight. Never once have we ever spontaneously broken out in song. Are we doing something wrong?”
    “If you ask Keni, yes.”
    If one look could imply the message ‘I want to tear your head off with my bare hands and punt it like a football’ it would be Big Mike’s fixated glare on Red. “So, your old boss is back. Why would you risk coming here for that?”
    The gangly demon shifted uncomfortabl y, his zealousness temporarily snuffed out under the weight of Mike’s stare.
    Eddie stepped between them, his dorky façade slipping slightly to tease at his true calculating nature. “The girl said that Barnabus wants the Conduit to fight on his side. The Countess is in a tizzy over it. But if the two big bads go head to head we want on Barnabus’s side. The Countess’s reign needs to end.” His beady gaze shifted my way. “And, if the rumor’s true, that you’re leading that fight alongside him, we want in.”
    Seven pairs of eyes turned to me , as if expecting me to lead the charge and storm the gates of hell right then and there. My heart thumped in my chest. This got way too intense, way too fast. “This is a demonic battle. It has nothing to do with me.”
    Big Mike caught me by the arm and dragged me to the corner of the garage, using more force than was really necessary. Size-wise he towered over me, yet he curled down to my level to whisper in my ear with a harsh urgency. “We don’t have allies right now. The Council shunned us, but the attacks will keep coming. We need help in any form we can get it. Trust isn’t necessary to fight beside someone with a mutual goal.”
    I peek ed around Big Mike’s tatted up arm to the band of demons whispering amongst themselves. Behind them, Gabe shrugged his confusion on the matter.
    “I’m the Conduit,” I muttered